REVIEW published: 11 November 2020 doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.574969 Coping With Stress and Burnout Associated With Telecommunication and Online Learning Nour Mheidly 1, Mohamad Y. Fares 2,3,4 and Jawad Fares 5* 1 Faculty of Information, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon, 2 Neuroscience Research Center, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon, 3 Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, 4 College of Medical Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 5 Department of Neurological Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States The COVID-19 pandemic substantially impacted the field of telecommunication. It increased the use of media applications that enable teleconferencing, telecommuting, Edited by: online learning, and social relations. Prolonged time facing screens, tablets, and Anca Birzescu, Xi’an International Studies smart devices increases stress and anxiety. Mental health stressors associated with University, China telecommunication can add to other stressors related to quarantine time and lockdown Reviewed by: to eventually lead to exhaustion and burnout. In this review, the effects of the COVID-19 Ravi Philip Rajkumar, pandemic on communication and education are explored. In addition, the relationship Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research between prolonged exposure to digital devices and mental health is studied. Finally, (JIPMER), India coping strategies are offered to help relieve the tele-burdens of pandemics. Hassan Youssef Hotait, Dubai Health Authority, Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, mental health-state of emotional and social well-being, psychology, students, United Arab Emirates education-active learning, e-learning, COVID-19 mental health response *Correspondence: Jawad Fares [email protected] INTRODUCTION Specialty section: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a major shift in communication. Advancement in technology This article was submitted to played a central role in facilitating this shift. People were pushed toward media applications that Public Health Education and enable live connection and interaction between individuals, institutions, firms, and even countries. Promotion, This mode of communication, done through remote applications, is called telecommunication. a section of the journal Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has Frontiers in Public Health not been successfully managed. Over the past decade, studies exploring stress and burnout in Received: 22 June 2020 the occupational and educational settings were published extensively. During the COVID-19 Accepted: 28 September 2020 pandemic, the workplace setting changed upon lockdown implementation. Appropriate jobs Published: 11 November 2020 shifted to remote working and telecommunication. In addition, education shifted to online mode Citation: and distance learning. Nevertheless, studies exploring stress and burnout associated with the new Mheidly N, Fares MY and Fares J norm of increased telecommunication are lacking. (2020) Coping With Stress and Here, we explore the status of communication and learning before and during the COVID-19 Burnout Associated With Telecommunication and Online pandemic. The intense shift to telecommunication during the outbreak can lead to increased levels Learning. of stress and burnout as a result of increased on-screen time. Improving public awareness on Front. Public Health 8:574969. the negative consequences of telecommunication and offering practical solutions to cope with its doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.574969 associated mental health challenges is vital to relieve the tele-burdens of pandemics. Frontiers in Public Health | www.frontiersin.org 1 November 2020 | Volume 8 | Article 574969 Mheidly et al. Telecommunication Stress and Burnout ONLINE COMMUNICATION IN THE ERA OF (7). Colleges in the US responded to the pandemic gradually. COVID-19 Touro College and Stanford University were the first to announce their shift to online learning in March 2020. Later, 1,400 private Before the COVID-19 pandemic, online communication and and public educational institutions joined, and announced learning has been growing steadily worldwide, as new digital their transition to online learning (8). Some institutions were technologies emerge, and the global adoption of the Internet reluctant to fully endorse online education straightaway. Harvard intensifies. The increased demand for skills that match the University officials, for instance, announced that only some of rapidly developing digital economy projected that online its schools, such as the schools of design, divinity, and public communication and learning was on track to become a global health, will conduct on-line classes during the Fall 2020 semester phenomenon and mainstream by 2025 (1). (9). In China, the Spring 2020 semester was postponed. To The pandemic shifted communication substantially from face- cope with the challenges, the Chinese Ministry of Education to-face to virtual. Business meetings, academic conferences, issued a notice stating that elementary and middle schools should education, and governmental management were forced to be held online. Additional web-based and television resources adapt to the challenges and risks that COVID-19 posed. were provided by the government to specific rural areas where Telecommunication via Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, and Cisco there is a lack of network coverage. Special programs were Webex was key in keeping the educational, economic, and health provided for students to increase their health and public safety sectors alive and ongoing during the outbreak. Organizations education and help them cope with epidemics (10). In Georgia, used tele-detailing by means of social media or email to maintain learning shifted online in the Spring 2020 semester. Various connectivity and communication (2). In addition, telemarketing facilities were provided to schools, teachers, and students by witnessed a surge in popularity to promote products and connect Georgia’s Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports. A with customers (2). This shift further necessitated a change in total of 2,086 public schools were equipped with the Microsoft policies and laws that govern communication in some countries. Teams platform and accounts for students and teachers were The UK government, for example, temporarily removed the in- registered to be able to host virtual classes (11). In Germany, person law for local authorities when holding public meetings, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted hidden challenges in the facilitating the conduction of meetings remotely (3). educational system, which is lagging when it comes to digital learning (12). Officials have lately started to provide schools and teachers with web services and email accounts (13). Nevertheless, ONLINE LEARNING AND THE COVID-19 teachers lack the training needed for proper online education PANDEMIC and are uninformed about technologies and the German digital infrastructure (12). In addition, several universities were shocked The online learning that we have today dates to the 1990s, when to know that their system is limited with respect to online the Internet and World Wide Web started reaching individuals library access, or the number of simultaneous teleconference in remote locations and different time zones. This was a major participants (12). shift from the mid-nineteenth century correspondence courses that started in England and involved sending of hard copy documents between students and university instructors. In the TELECOMMUNICATION, WELLBEING, past two decades, advances in communication disrupted the AND MENTAL HEALTH education industry and made online education more feasible technologically, economically, and operationally (4). The surge in telecommunication led people to spend more time The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the shift of the facing screens, tablets, and smart phones. Previously, the increase education sector toward online learning as gathering of students in exposure to smart devices and screens has been reported was forbidden. A high demand for massive online open courses, to increase stress and burnout levels. Stress is an emotional, from providers such as Coursera and edX, was noted during the physical, or mental reaction that causes tension (14). It can lockdown (3, 5). In April 2020, people searched for “free online result from social, environmental, or psychological situations. courses” more than one million times. Searches for technology Burnout is a mental health state that results from work- courses that upgrade skills and knowledge, such as Microsoft related distress, involving a continuous reaction to persistent Excel, Python, and coding, increased by 100% (6). To satisfy the interpersonal stressors. The major factors contributing to demand, Coursera offered certificates for 115 courses for free burnout are overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism, and (3). Course offerings varied between science, philosophy, history, detachment. In addition, a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of mathematics, and other topics (3). edX also offered a variety of accomplishment may ensue (15). Appropriately, occupational free online courses in partnership with various institutions to burnout is conceptualized as a breakdown in the relationship teach the history of pandemics, the actions that should be taken between people and their work (16). during pandemics,